Grab-bucket.



PATENTED JAN. 2, 1906.

A. B. BROWN.

GRAB BUCKET.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 2,1905.

3 SHEETS-SHEET l.

INVENTORZ WITNESSES- PATENTED JAN. 2, 1906,

A. E. BROWN.

GRAB BUCKET. APPLICATION FILED AUG. 2.1905.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

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PATENTED JAN. 2, 1906.

A. E BROWN. GRAB BUCKET.

APPLICATION FILED 11116.2.1905:

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFTC ALEXANDER E. BROWN, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO,ASSIGNOR TO THE BROWN HOISTING MACHINERY COMPANY, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO.

GRAB-BUCKET.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 2, 1906 Application filed August 2, 1905. Serial No.272,362.

1'0 all whom, it may concern:

Beit known that I, ALEXANDER E. BROWN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Cleveland, Ohio, have invented a new and useful Improvementin Grab-Buckets, of which the following, in connection with the drawingsaocompanying and making a part of this application, is a full, clear,and exact description.

My said invention belongs to the class of buckets in general use for thetransfer of ore, coal, and similar gross material from boat or car todock or stock-pile, and vice versa, by means of a bucket-carryingtrolley adapted to be traversed along an overhead -bridge tramway thatspans the space in which the handling of the material is to be effected.

A form of grab-bucket extensively used in the above connection is whatis characterized as the two-rope type of bucket, from the fact that theoperation of raising and lowering and of opening and closing the same isdependent upon and accomplished by the manipulation, respectively, ofso-called hoisting and operating ropes or cables connected with a sourceof power. As is well understood by those familiar with the art, theseropes are reeved around sheaves that are fixed in the upper part of thebucket in such relation that by letting out said ropes or winding themin they will in turn effectuate the several functions for which they areintended.

1n the prevailing type of construction referred to the hoisting-rope, socalled, is reeved around sheaves in a top or upper block of a main blockrequired for the purpose, and the operatingrope, so called, the ropewhereby the jaws of the bucket are brought together, is reeved aroundsheaves in both the upper and lower members of said main sheaveblock ofsaid bucket. In this manner said bucket is suspended, hoisted, lowered,and generally operated by the respective sets of strands of thehoist-rope and operating-rope that lead off from the opposite sides oftheir sheaves. The bucket itself in its ascent from or descent to thepoint of the load-supply or dump must consequently always tend to assumeand maintain such a position that its median line will be in the sameplane as said opposite strands. It follows that the bucket cannot belowered into or hoisted out of a hatch or car when the latter iscrosswise of such plane without a special manipulation at eachoperation.

This of course involves the l expense of stationing an attendantat thehatch or car for the sole purpose of rotating the bucket by hand inorder that its longitudinal dimension shall be made to correspond withthat of the hatch and a free passage there through insured.

It is the object and aim of my present invention to accordingly improveexisting types of the two-rope grab-bucket that the top or suspensionblock in the same may be detached at will and reset, as described, in adififerent plane than that of the buckets spread, all in a manner and byan arrangement that, furthermore, allows said block when detached to beutilized, if desired, as or in the place of a sling in hoistingoperations requiring the same.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a side view of a bucket embodyingmyinvention when closed. Fig. 2 is a transverse section of such bucketthrough its center with the blocks attached to the same, the view beingfroma point ninety degrees from the point of view of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 isan enlarged View of the blocks when disconnected from the bucket. Fig. 4is a like view of the same when related as in Fig. 2, and Fig. 5 is asectional view ninety degrees from the point of view of Fig. 4. Fig. 6is a top view of the top block, and'Fig. 7 a like view ninety degreesfrom the point of view of Fig. 6. Fig. 8 shows the top block whenrelated to the bucket as in Fig. 1, and Fig. 9 when the bucket isconnected thereto at ninety degrees from its position in Fig. 8.

B is the bucket proper. It is made up of an exterior housing or frameflaring at its lower portion to the front and rear, with oppositely-related jaws J J, adapted to be closed and opened against each other asthe crosshead H, to which the inner ends of the jaws J J are pivoted, israised or lowered centrally through the bucket. Said cross-head H ismade up of a plate bent upwardly in U-shaped section and transverselyseated in said housing or frame in any suitable manner, as in oppositeupright grooves or guides, (not shown,) so as to permit the same toslide or be oscillated up and down within said frame.

At the upper part of the'bucket B is located a top block made up of theupper and lower sheaves, respectively, S S, and the necessary housing orframe by which they are secured to the bucket. This housing is composedof special hook for grappling a chain, eye, or.

a plate 6, bent downwardly in U-shaped section and having its sidesclosed by two vertical exterior plates 6' e, firmly riveted thereto, andthereby completing, with the plate 0, a four-sided hood-likecompartment, within which are duly journaled the hoisting-sheaves it Itand the upper sheave S. The top of said housing is pierced with suitableapertures a a a a for the passage of thehoisting-ropes it h to thesheaves 7t 7t and b b for the passage of the operating-ropes r r to thesheaves S and S. Said housing penetrates the top of the bucket and isthere detachedly afiixed to the transverse beams t a" by means of thenutbolts N, that pass through holes 0 0 in said beams and holes 0 O inthe lower part of the four sides of said housing for the purpose.

The block containing the sheave S is removably connected to a swivel Win the sliding cross-head H by means of a pin 39. In Fig. 3 is shown ahook and double-clevis attachment that may be hung to the block of saidS through the pin 19 where it is desired to use the top blockindependently of the bucket for handling structural or other material bymeans of slings or chains.

It is obvious that by reason of the sets of holes 0 O in each pair ofsides of said housing or frame within which the sheaves S and Sarejournaled and of the means shown whereby said sheaves may berotatably or swivelly connected to the cross-head H said bucket may beoperatively attached to said top block in the first instance and ifoccasion requires, may thereafter at any time by removing said nut-boltsN and rotating the bucket around the swivel W be again firmly bolted tosaid top block, but at an angle with the same ninety degrees from thefirst position. In this manner the bucket may be used continuously withits spread either in the same plane or in one at right angles to theplane of the opposite strands of the hoisting-rope, and specialmanipulation in order to lower into or raise from a car or hatch that istransverse of the plane of said strands may be entirely dispensed with.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A two-rope grab-bucket connectively related to its top block in suchmanner that the spread of the bucket-blades shall tend to coincide withor to be opposite to that of the strands of the hoist-rope as may bepredetermined.

2. A two-rope grab-bucket detachabl y connected to its top block withthe plane of the spread of the blades or jaws coincident with oropposite to that of the hoist-rope, substantially as shown anddescribed.

3. The combination of a two-rope grabbucket; having its top blockrotatively connected with the sliding cross-head of the same, andsuitable means of detachedly uniting said block and bucket together whenthe planes of the hoist-rope, and the buckets jaws are eithercoincident. or opposite, substantially as shown and described.

4c. The combination of a two-rope grabbucket and a top blockconnectively related to "the cross-head of said bucket or to aseparatehook or clevis; substantially as shown and described.

ALEXANDER E. BROWN. In presence of M. MILLARD, A. M. MERRYWEATHER.

